Welcome to your Friday Rundown for the week ending July 20. Proper HVAC maintenance and other feedback is welcome at info@clearpathaction.org. 
 

CARBON CAPTURE STUDIES PREVIEWED AT HOUSE SCIENCE 

At a July 17 House Science hearing, Carbon Utilization Research Council Executive Director Shannon Angielski previewed two upcoming studies that will be released later this month underscoring the promise and benefits of aggressively developing and commercializing U.S.-based carbon capture, storage and utilization technologies.

CURC and the Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI) will release the 2018 Advanced Fossil Energy Technology Roadmap that identifies technologies that can be available by the 2025-2035 timeframe that generate electricity from fossil fuels with significantly reduced carbon dioxide emissions that could be cost competitive with other sources of electricity generation.

This will be the fifth Roadmap that CURC and EPRI have published since 2003. The 2018 Roadmap is a departure from prior Roadmaps published by CURC and EPRI as it includes new data on recent advances in technology for not just coal, but also natural gas in electric power generation.

A companion analysis conducted by CURC and ClearPath will also include modeling provided by NERA Economic Consulting and Advanced Resources International to show that there are significant economic benefits to the U.S. if the technology development outlined in the Roadmap is undertaken under a wide range of scenarios.

The analysis projects:
 

• Up to 87 GW of market-driven carbon capture deployment paired with enhanced oil recovery by 2040

• Resulting in a significant increase in domestic oil production and lower cost retail electricity rates

• All of which contribute to substantial increases in annual GDP as well as over 800,000 new jobs through 2040

RELATED READ: House Republicans Tout Carbon Capture HOUSTON CHRONICLE

HOUSE ENERGY APPROVES THIRD NEXT-GEN NUCLEAR PLAN 

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, 33-16, approved a bill from Ohio GOP Rep. Bill Johnson (H.R. 6351) that would require the Department of Energy to assess the impact of legal, regulatory, policy and commercial practices on the U.S. civilian nuclear industry and make recommendations to Congress on improving the competitiveness of the U.S. civilian nuclear industry in global markets.  

It is the third bill in two weeks the panel has approved to spur next-generation nuclear technologies in the U.S.

The panel last week approved a bipartisan bill led by Reps. Bill Flores (R-Texas) and Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) to direct DOE to establish a program supporting availability of high assay low enriched uranium (HA-LEU) via public-private partnerships to address regulatory and market challenges. And it approved the bipartisan NUKE Act (H.R. 1320) from Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) that is a commonsense step to making further improvements at rightsizing NRC’s workforce and budget. It does this by establishing reasonable deadlines for major applications and other efforts to streamline licensing, and authorizes studies to reconsider outdated regulations of the Atomic Energy Act.
 

THE ROLE DOE MUST KEEP PLAYING TO ADVANCE U.S. NUCLEAR 

As he joins other experts on the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee in helping the department create a roadmap for the future of the sector, ClearPath founder Jay Faison in a recent blog highlighted some initial thoughts on what we at ClearPath call NuclearVision.

Following the guiding principles Jay lays out could result in proper investments in DOE’s research programs, facilitating advanced fuels development, constructing a versatile fast test reactor by 2026 and competitive cost sharing for our most promising advanced reactor designs.

JAY’S TAKE
 

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